The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-10-06
THR MAN FROM NOD.

bOOuO hb tnO OutShOA - ~Nob '~N
falling back on his base Of supplies by
the old well-curb, found himself close
upon the man in the hammock, under
Miss Denny's apple-tree.
"See here, said the man as the urchin
came to strategic halt, IL wonder If
your mother would sell you to me, and
would she haggle over the price. How
does it strike your"
"That depends. Wot would you do
with me?"
Really, I don't know. You admit
you are fat, and might want to ship
you to the Cannibal islands as specu-
lation. Or 1 might want to make a
choir boy of you, if little of that
hoarsness could be taken out of your
voice, and your hair persuaded to stay
anywhere. There are lots of ways OF
using boys in the place where came
from"
Say" said the boy, with new
show of interest, "do you know wot my
mother says?"
II must confess that / do not. The
versatile female tongue"
"She says that she guesses you don't
live nowhere. She says that you may
be a pirate and you may be- a preach
or for all any one knows. She
SAYS that you do nothin' but
eat and sleep, and that fore you come
here they must have kept you awake ell
night with nothin' to eat. Say mister, "
and the wheedling tone of the mother
was unconsciously adopted by the boy,
"where did you come from, anyway"
The man in the hammock dropped
back with smile, and, shading his eyes
from ray of sunshine that fell down
among the apple blossoms, said lazily
II have been told that your interesting
mother is sort of missionary of personal
intelligence for the neighborhood. l
like to encourage home industries; and
Just to help her along, you may tell
her that Miss Denny's lazy boarder,
who certainly does eat and sleep great
deal, is just out of the Land Of Nod"
The boy was true to his mothers ex.
ample. Compromising the ono phrase
that could be of service to her, he shot
homeward like an arrow, that it might
be safely delivered before being jostled
out of his needless little head. And be-
fore the cows we're we'll asleep in their
beds or dew-besprinklei grass that
night the people of Farmdale, from the
red school-house on the hill to the tan
merry in the hollow, were in full posses
sion of the first admission as to himself
vet made by the mysterious stranger
who had fed the fires Of their curiosity
through four long weeks of the budding
spring.
The moon that looked into the eyes
Of the peaceful kline that night
found time also to touch the
white shawl that hung about little
Miss Denny as she sa. on the steps of
the old far nhouse, around which the
village had grown. The hammock
hung empty near by, while back under
the honeysuckle vines, sat the man from
Nod, not asleep and not eating, but as
indolent in attitude and speech as when
negotiating for the purchase of sixty
odd pounds of shock headed boy.
The woman was pulling spray Of
green to pieces with vehemence that
showed her protest against the thought
to which his lips we're giving form.
believe me, Miss Denny, that you
are giving yourself q courage and faith
you don't possess-that one woman in
ten thousand cannot possess. You see
that when Rebekah Of Mesopotamia
followed the chosen servant to Abra-
ham into q strange land it was no
great venture on her part. He had told
her of the home to which she was to go,
of the man she was to wed. 1t was
family affair, You see, and her father
was relative of the father-in-law which
was to be. Now, do you really mean to
say TO me that even though you love a
man with all the love that such women
rs you can give, you would take him on
perfect trust-would give him your flu
ture on q chance, and, placing your
hands in his. walk fearlessly with him
out into the dark?"
II would. And why not2"
at is against nature-agalnst 'woman's
nature"
"But il loved hin2 I'll loved him
As . woman should love before she weds.